Archive 1 of Momentum for the Entrepreneurial Personality Type (EPT)

Running a successful business is one of the most spiritual undertakings we can elect in our lifetimes. It is more difficult than just about anything else we do. As we start to build our team, building our business becomes exponentially complicated.

This isn't something you can do in a weekend or read a book and take care of. Building a team is a commitment, it is a process, and if you are willing to put in the time, it would change you more than anything else.

Molly Keyser and her husband Aaron Silvernale are successfully building a team and doing so fast. But as Molly will explain to you, it isn't easy, but it is worth it…

Most entrepreneurs start the day reacting to other people and letting the world manage them. They get up in the morning, check email, and start a cycle of reactivity that destroys productivity on a daily basis.

By checking the email first thing in the morning, you are proactively making the decision to let anyone who sent you an email manage your time. You are conditioning your body to react and become reactive rather than proactively creating your success and the outcome you are driving towards in the world.

This is one of the most distracted habits an entrepreneur can have. This can lead to a cycle of reactivity that will keep you stuck in place and prevent you from moving forward.

If you are ready to create more momentum in the first hour of the day, then most people do all day, there is a better way.

Finance and accounting are an absolute function in a business. It's either done or it isn't, there is very little ambiguity. Either a business is provided with clean financials on a monthly basis, or they aren’t.

Over 90% of the entrepreneurs I talk to are not getting clean books on a monthly basis. A lot of them do not have a solution in place, so not having books is understandable. What is shocking is how many of them have a solution in place, but they have fallen behind for some reason.

This is unacceptable. If whatever solution you have in place for accounting and finance is not able to provide you with clean books on a monthly basis, they have a professional responsibility to tell you to find another solution.

The one department you can never chase, is finance and accounting. There is more exposure here than just about anywhere else in your business.

NOTE: In this podcast I mention the name of a service firm that we used to work with for our outsources finance and accounting.  We no longer work with that firm so rather than eliminate this episode where is a tremendous amount of value, instead we decided to just remove the name of the firm from the audio. 

I often share that there are two simple rules for success for married entrepreneurs:
- One, your marriage is most important.
- Two, make transparency in your marriage absolute.

The question comes up, "what if I am single?"

The rules of success are just as simple, but different:
- One, get clear on the type of person you want to be in a relationship with.
- Two, become that person.

I look forward to your comments and questions…

Let's be honest, every entrepreneur wants to be a superhero. We want to make things better in the world, create momentum for everyone around us, and achieve at the highest levels that some may even consider superhuman.

Very few entrepreneurs ever learned this, but there is a way to consistently create superhuman results. We watch entrepreneurs do this all the time. Elon Musk has redefined multiple industries and our view of the universe. Mark Zuckerberg permanently and irrevocably changed human communication. Jeff Bezos has radically changed the way we buy and sell products around the world.

There is a consistency with each of these examples, each of these entrepreneurs has a passionate, and committed team around them. There is no way this level of radical change and results in the world could be achieved by single human being. Teams in this regard are not optional, they are a requirement for success.

That is why it is important for you to create a culture where your team feel safe, because when they do, you will.

Hunters are physiologically sensitive momentum based beings that are highly reactive to constraint.

One of the greatest areas of physiological connection for human beings is sex. When we create this physical bond with another person, we are connected to them in the most intimate way.

For people like us, sex is a need, not a want. It contributes to how we show up in the world, affects our confidence and our image of ourselves, and has a great deal to do with how much momentum we are feeling.

For most entrepreneurs sex is an area where they feel vulnerability instead of power. An area where they accept what they get, and don't get what they want. And a subject that they would rather not talk about and would rather wish would get better.

You can take this from an area of compromise, to an unfair advantage. If you are ready to take your achievement to new heights, admitting what you want sexually, and communicating with your partner will change everything.

I’ve never worked with anyone who like to be told what to do, I don't hire those types of people. People who want to be told what to do don't tend to try very hard and they play it safe. I want people who are driven to make new things happening in the world, do more than they did the day before, and achieve.

When you hire people like this, consensus will create momentum.

Talented people don't want to be told what to do, they want to be involved in the process and help create the outcomes. They want to understand the decision-making and be able to help make it better. They want to be involved rather than dictated to.

If you are willing to create consensus, the result you're capable of will go up exponentially.

People will support what you asked them to, but they will passionately support what they co-create.

It happened every entrepreneur or I know, including me.

You maybe having a bad week, a series of bad calls, challenges in your business or your personal life, maybe even issues with your team and then…

A small voice in the back of your head says “maybe I should just quit."

What you are quitting it depends on where you are. For some it will be quit and go back and get a job. For others it will be quit fire the team and go back to working by yourself. If you have a team, it may be quit growing it and go back to where it was manageable.

It doesn't matter which have, none of them are real.

Quitting is just a fantasy for people like us.

There is reason why most companies don't grow passed $1 million, the entrepreneurs in charge don't know how to effectively set and achieve outcomes. After all it's rare that you meet anyone who wants a business is smaller than $1 million, why then do so few people achieve it.

Entrepreneurs have a terrible habit of setting goals and outcomes that are so far beyond where they are today, they feel unrealistic. When you take a goal like this to your team, rather than have them trying to work together to achieve, you're asking them to chase a dream.

Chasing someone else's dream is demoralizing. When you get behind, you feel like you're failing. When a team collectively gets behind, they will feel like they're failing you and they will learn how to lose gracefully.

Losing gracefully is demoralizing. Losing gracefully crushes a team's momentum. Losing gracefully can become the single most damaging condition to your company's culture.

There is a better way.

If I have convinced you that you are an evolutionary Hunter and one of the most important people in the world, then anyone looking at you should know it.

Evolutionary hunters who understand their place in the world look like professional athletes. It’s OK if you have slipped, or you are not in great condition right now, today is a great time for a change. We have the earning potential of a professional athlete, we have the affluence potential of a professional athlete, we should take care of ourselves like a professional athlete.

Unfortunately too many entrepreneurs today are running themselves too hard, avoiding self-care, and “hustling” to try to become successful. If this is all you are doing, you are building a house of cards. Every entrepreneur who is capable of earning $1,000,000 is $1,000,000 race horse. If you owned a million dollar racehorse, chances are we would know it was worth $1,000,000 by looking at it. Would someone know you are a million dollar race horse?